PARABLES - WEEK FOUR - DAY THREE
Hello and welcome to your Daily Devos, following our Parables series at 29:11!
Take some time today to read through the provided scriptures, meditate on the lessons we’ve learned this week, and journal your prayers. Have an amazing week, 29:11 Church!
THEME SCRIPTURE:
Parable of the Mustard Seed
31 Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”
33 Jesus also used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”
- Matthew 13:31-33 NLT
TODAY’S PASSAGE:
20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”
John 17:20-21 NLT
REFLECTION:
As we look at this idea of seeds I was curious to know the effects of a seed I was thinking of what would happen to a seed for it to have a negative outcome. I found that a cross-pollination of seeds sometimes produces good produce and can be visually attractive, but it’s also the easiest way to ruin a whole crop. When cross-pollination occurs, it affects the seeds which contain DNA from each of the plants, but not the surrounding fruit. Cross-pollination is a risk and the outcomes are often not what we would anticipate or hope for. The fruit grows normally but any plants grown from the seeds within a cross pollinated fruit end up bitter or tasteless and the texture is watery or grainy. Long story short - there is danger when the wrong seeds are being mixed into the harvest. Think about that before you take unity lightly— disunity can destroy a community. This is why we must fight to plant seeds of unity - seeding for an understanding, gracious, loving, unified community.
The thing we have to remember is that we are a representation of God’s Kingdom and as God’s people we are called to bring UNITY to the WHOLE WORLD so that everyone might believe.
THOUGHTS TO PONDER:
JESUS prayed for HIS CHURCH — for UNITY - and to be ONE. Not only in the day and time that He was here on Earth, but he prayed for the future of His people and church. I am so grateful that Jesus prayed this prayer for us - you, me, and his church. Take some time to reflect and think about what seeds you are sowing in whatever harvest God has given you - your life, in God’s church, and in your community. What kind of seeds in your life have you sown that bring disunity? What kind of seeds are you sowing that bring unity? Let’s time to pray for our hearts, repent of times where we have sown seeds of disunity, and ask God to help us sow seeds of unity in and through our lives!
